About

Jonathan Hall is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and a Professor in the Departments of History and Classics at the University of Chicago. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1993. His research interests encompass ancient Greek social, cultural, and political history, classical archaeology, historical methodology, and modern Greek history. Hall's earlier research focused on the cultural and social history of ancient Greece, with particular emphasis on the construction, meaning, and functions of ethnic identity among Greek communities. He has authored several significant works, including his first book, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, which received the 1999 Charles J. Goodwin Award for Merit from the American Philological Association, and Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture, awarded the 2004 Gordon J. Laing Award from the University of Chicago Press. His scholarly contributions also include exploring questions of historical method in works such as A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200–479 BCE, and Artifact and Artifice: Classical Archaeology and the Ancient Historian. His most recent publication is Reclaiming the Past: Argos and its Archaeological Heritage in the Modern Era, published in 2021. In recognition of his teaching excellence, he was awarded the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2009.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Intensive care medicine
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics
• Physical therapy
• Emergency medicine

Selected publications

• The flux of energy in critical illness and the obesity paradox

  Physiological Reviews · 2025-02-21 · 13 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  During critical illness, systemic inflammation causes organ-specific metabolic changes. In the immune and inflammatory compartments, predominantly anabolic reprogramming supports cellular replication and inflammatory response execution. Pari passu, catabolism of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle supplies carbon skeletons and enthalpy for inflammatory and immune cell anabolism. The liver plays a key role during these metabolic shifts in enabling adequate supply of glucose and ketone bodies to the circulation. Although often perceived as passive surrogates of prehospitalization frailty, body mass constituents are active parties of an overarching metabolic trade-off that is key for survival after acute insults. Muscle and adipose tissue remodel in response to critical illness and thus profoundly influence the systemic metabolic landscape during and after hospitalization. Whether obesity's effect on patient systemic metabolism and survival is paradoxically beneficial or not remains controversial. Substrate-induced epigenetic changes lead to abnormal transcriptional programs that in turn regulate metabolic pathways critical to patient survival. We present a summary of major mechanisms involved in the flux of energy in critical illness from body mass into immune response execution and suggest future research avenues focused on perturbed immune-metabolic and epigenetic programs that could lead to improved understanding of these processes, and eventually to better outcomes for the critically ill.

  PublisherDOI

• A FIRST-IN-HUMAN STUDY TO EVALUATE THE SAFETY, PHARMACOKINETICS AND PHARMACODYNAMICS OF ALTB-268, A NOVEL PSGL-1 AGONISTIC ANTIBODY

  2025-03-12

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Aims: ALTB-268 is an agonist antibody targeting the immune checkpoint regulator P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL 1) to down-regulate pathogenic T-cells. ALTB-268 is a tetravalent antibody and more potent in vitro than ALTB-168 (neihulizumab) which has shown to be efficacious in phase 2 studies for T-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases and acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). This dose escalation study evaluated tolerability, safety, pharmacokinetic (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) in healthy subjects. Methods: Fifty-six subjects were randomly assigned to single subcutaneous (SC) doses of 25, 75, 225, or 675 mg, or multiple weekly SC doses of 75 mg or 225 mg on Days 1, 8, 15 and 22, or a loading dose of 500 mg on Day 1, followed by doses of 250 mg on the remaining days. Results: No clinically meaningful adverse events (AEs) were observed. Plasma exposure increased more than dose-proportionally after single doses across the entire dose range. After repeated exposure steady-state conditions were reached by Day 29. The level of receptor occupancy (RO) in T-cells showed a clear relationship to dose, with full RO observed after a single 675mg SC dose and after repeated administration of 225 mg SC weekly. Additional doses did not appear to further increase the level of receptor occupancy. Conclusions: ALTB-268 was safe and well-tolerated by healthy subjects. Full and durable RO over the 4-week treatment period was achieved with a loading dose of 500 mg SC followed by weekly dosing with 250 mg SC. These study results support the further clinical development of ALTB-268.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Disruption of the circadian rhythm of melatonin: A biomarker of critical illness severity

  Sleep Medicine · 2023-07-28 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparison of One-Year Mortality After Critical Illness in a Prospective Observational Study of ICU Survivors With and Without COVID-19

  2023-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Mo1734 A NOVEL AI TOOL IS ACCURATE AT INTERPRETING HISTOLOGY AND DETECTS RESPONSE TO NEIHULIZUMAB THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH MODERATE TO SEVERE ULCERATIVE COLITIS: PROOF OF CONCEPT

  Gastroenterology · 2023-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of early mobilisation on long-term cognitive impairment in critical illness in the USA: a randomised controlled trial

  The Lancet Respiratory Medicine · 2023 · 184 citations

  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy
  • Pediatrics
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Feasibility of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19 Infection

  2021-05-01

  article

  Rationale:Early mobilization and physical rehabilitation improve functional outcomes and are essential to high quality critical care. Despite its importance, it is common for rehabilitation to be deferred in the critically ill due to a variety of barriers, including infection with SARS-CoV-2. We present a single academic center's experience providing physical and occupational therapy to critically ill patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Methods:All patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) associated illness admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) from March 1st to July 31st, 2020 were identified in this retrospective chart review. Patients who received at least one therapy treatment session were included in the study. Results:Three-hundred and seventy-nine physical and occupational therapy sessions were conducted with 116 patients. The majority (85%) of patients were admitted to the ICU for hypoxemic respiratory failure. The median number of treatment sessions during ICU admission per patient was 2, (IQR: 1-4). The median time from ICU admission to first PT session was 4 days (IQR, 3-5). The median percentage of ICU days with physical and occupational therapy treatment was 33% (IQR, 21-50). The median session length was 25 minutes (IQR, 25-30min). Sitting was achieved in 353 sessions, (93%) standing was achieved in 261 sessions (69%), walking was achieved in 185 sessions (48%), and sitting in the bedside chair 118 times (31%).Patients with respiratory failure completed therapy sessions while receiving mechanical ventilation (21% of sessions), high flow nasal cannula (45% of sessions), non-invasive positive pressure ventilation by helmet and facemask (7% of sessions), and ECMO (12% of sessions). Patients requiring vasoactive medications (4%) and continuous renal replacement therapy (6%) were also treated by physical and occupational therapy. Delirium, determined by confusion assessment method (CAM-ICU), was frequently encountered by the physical and occupational therapy teams and was not an absolute barrier (32%) (Table 1). Discharge destinations included: home (n=57, 61%), acute rehabilitation units (n=16, 17%), long term acute care hospitals (n=9, 10%), sub-acute care centers (n=8, 8%), and skilled nursing facilities (n=4, 4%). No members of the therapy team were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 during the study period. Conclusions:This report demonstrates the feasibility of conducting physical and occupational therapy in COVID-19 specific ICUs. Providing therapy services appeared to be safe for patients and members of the therapy team, as adverse events were rare and no therapist was diagnosed with COVID-19.

  PublisherDOI

• Bedside estimates of dead space using end-tidal CO2 are independently associated with mortality in ARDS

  Critical Care · 2021-09-15 · 28 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Purpose In acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), dead space fraction has been independently associated with mortality. We hypothesized that early measurement of the difference between arterial and end-tidal CO 2 (arterial-ET difference), a surrogate for dead space fraction, would predict mortality in mechanically ventilated patients with ARDS. Methods We performed two separate exploratory analyses. We first used publicly available databases from the ALTA, EDEN, and OMEGA ARDS Network trials ( N = 124) as a derivation cohort to test our hypothesis. We then performed a separate retrospective analysis of patients with ARDS using University of Chicago patients ( N = 302) as a validation cohort. Results The ARDS Network derivation cohort demonstrated arterial-ET difference, vasopressor requirement, age, and APACHE III to be associated with mortality by univariable analysis. By multivariable analysis, only the arterial-ET difference remained significant ( P = 0.047). In a separate analysis, the modified Enghoff equation ((P a CO 2 –P ET CO 2 )/P a CO 2 ) was used in place of the arterial-ET difference and did not alter the results. The University of Chicago cohort found arterial-ET difference, age, ventilator mode, vasopressor requirement, and APACHE II to be associated with mortality in a univariate analysis. By multivariable analysis, the arterial-ET difference continued to be predictive of mortality ( P = 0.031). In the validation cohort, substitution of the arterial-ET difference for the modified Enghoff equation showed similar results. Conclusion Arterial to end-tidal CO 2 (ETCO 2 ) difference is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with ARDS.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Predictors of Mortality in COVID 19 Associated Respiratory Failure Among Predominantly African American Patients

  2021-05-01

  article

  Rationale:Patients with COVID-19 frequently develop severe respiratory disease and may require invasive mechanical ventilation. A study of primarily white patients intubated for COVID-19 associated respiratory failure found predictors of 28-day mortality to be respiratory system compliance, age, tidal volume, arterial pH and heart rate. Little is known about the outcomes of minority populations with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Therefore, we present an analysis of the predictors of mortality in a group of primarily African American patients with COVID-19 associated respiratory failure. Methods:All adult patients admitted to the University of Chicago COVID-19 intensive care unit receiving invasive mechanical ventilation between March 1st and June 31st, 2020 were identified. Patients were included in the study if they had at least one recorded measure of plateau airway pressure while receiving volume-controlled ventilation allowing determination of driving pressure and lung compliance. Univariable analysis was conducted comparing survivors with those who died in-hospital followed by construction of a multivariable logistic regression model predicting in-hospital mortality based on significant factors from univariable analysis, excluding colinear variables. Results:Eighty-five patients were included in this retrospective study. Patients were primarily African American (n=73, 86%). Among all study patients, median tidal volume was 6.0 cc/kg ideal body weight (IQR 5.8-6.2), PEEP was 8 cm H2O (IQR 5.0-10), and driving pressure was 14 cm H2O (IQR 11-16). Median respiratory system compliance was 27 ml/cm H2O (IQR 21-34). Salvage therapies for refractory hypoxemia in the cohort included prone positioning (27%), paralysis (27%), inhaled pulmonary vasodilators (19%), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (1%). In the multivariable logistic regression model, age (OR 1.077, 95% CI 1.031 to 1.125, p=0.001) and driving pressure (OR 1.174, 95% CI 1.009 to 1.366, p=0.038) were found to be independent predictors of mortality. Conclusions:In a predominantly African American patient population with COVID-19 pneumonia requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, higher driving pressure was predictive of overall mortality. These finding are consistent with the work of Botta et al (2020), who demonstrated reduced lung compliance was predictive of mortality among a largely white group of patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. While minority populations infected with COVID-19 have been found worse outcomes, early lung mechanics appear to be comparable to white patients. These findings support that higher driving pressures and low lung compliance are indicative of serious lung injury which may lead to death.

  PublisherDOI

• Early Rehabilitation Feasibility in a COVID-19 ICU

  CHEST Journal · 2021-06-08 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• John P. Kress

  University of Chicago

  74 shared

• Anne S. Pohlman

  University of Chicago Medical Center

  68 shared

• Gregory A. Schmidt

  Minnesota Lions Eye Bank

  28 shared

• Brian K. Gehlbach

  University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

  28 shared

• Joseph E. Levitt

  Stanford University

  20 shared

• Élie Azoulay

  Hôpital Saint-Louis

  19 shared

• William D. Schweickert

  17 shared

• Mark Pohlman

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Charles J. Goodwin Award for Merit from the American Philolo…
• Gordon J. Laing Award from the University of Chicago Press (…
• Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (20…